All Class Changes in Patch 7.3

Welcome to Wowhead's compilation of class changes throughout the Patch 7.3 PTR. Every week Wowhead posts a list of the datamined changes from each 7.3 PTR update, but some players would also like to see the changes from the past few months to get an overall sense of how the classes evolve, as well as blue posts in one place.

We've gone through the spell data from every update and organized all the changes by spec, noting overall changes to a spell if it was modified several weeks in a row. Not interested in a particular class? Just click the toggle button to hide that class and jump to the next section. After each weekly build, we'll edit this post to update accordingly.

Blizzard

Just to clarify the numbers--the DK "buff aura" on PTR is +23%, which is intended. The patch notes say "14%" because this is a 14% increase over what's on live (+8%).

Part of the apparent reduction in the patch notes is that 5% of the 7.3 buff was advanced into a live hotfix a few weeks ago. So the "increase" from live, in the 7.3 patch notes, looks 5% smaller.

Blizzard

Row 75 on next PTR:

Inexorable Assault updated to: "While in combat with no enemy within 8 yards, you gain Inexorable Assault every 1 sec. Each stack causes your next autoattack to deal additional Frost damage."It's stealing the distance-based mechanic from the proposed White Walker--where we agree it didn't always accomplish as much as we'd want. Also, the attack-based version of IA would likely have been awkward to waterproof against weird rotational shenanigans.

The third talent, this iteration, will be a version of Volatile Shielding that increases AMS's absorb and RP generation (and nothing else). In keeping with IA--we're experimenting a bit with allowing some damage payoff in a "utility" row in the case of a spec like Frost that isn't getting strong movement bonuses.

Blizzard

The next PTR build should have a round of changes aimed at addressing various concerns with Frost. The major issues we're focused on are:

The spec is too dominated by Breath of Sindragosa (which has knock-on effects on talent choice throughout the tree).

Breath of Sindragosa, when you do use it, can be maintained for far too long. In addition to causing the talent/legendary lock-in around it, it means the demand for continuous time on target is very strict for extended periods of time.

The spec has many talents/legendaries that (individually or taken together) flood it with resources. Breath contributes to this by encouraging you to take all of them, but it's also a problem on its own.

Talent balance generally has to be reviewed, especially after addressing all of the time.

We're trying to limit the scope of the changes in the patch, to address the above without opening up the core rotation for changes.

We want to preserve the identity of Breath of Sindragosa, including the steady resource drain being the main limiting factor, and the expression of skill in optimizing around that. So in trying to avoid less natural solutions like capping the duration or redesigning how it works, we're trying to limit the talent/legendary synergies that cause huge variance in how long Breath can be maintained. And breaking the Breath of Sindragosa/Hungering Rune Weapon interaction, on its own, goes a very long way toward making Breath's duration more reasonable again. DPS adjustment for the change is being put mostly into the baseline spec rather than into the power of Breath, because it's currently so far ahead of other setups.

Using even a small subset of all of the above effects causes the rotation to be quite flooded. They are all being either weakened in power (with compensation to the baseline spec), or given non-resource-granting effects for part of their value. In addition, the two most egregious offenders (Murderous Efficiency and Horn of Winter) can no longer be taken together.

Overall, there should now be a much broader set of talent combinations that produce a good-feeling rotation in which there are resources to do something on most GCDs, but you're still able to spend them down. Including, for example, during Hungering Rune Weapon, which is overly hectic or frustrating right now when you can't spend all of its resources.

In addition, the talent rearrangement puts Frozen Pulse on a row with two predominantly AoE talents, which is a better home for it. The Frozen Pulse/Icy Talons ("machinegun") synergy is preserved, but can no longer be taken alongside Runic Attenuation as well.

NB: The Hungering Rune Weapon bug may be fixed on live shortly as well, after we test the fix and analyze the impact.

Minor talent rebalancing to match the above rearrangements and talent changes; numbers are likely to be updated as the rest of the changes settle into place.

Breath can retain its role as a talent that encourages building around it to some degree (and its synergies with things like Runic Attenuation, Koltira's Newfound Will, and Seal of Necrofantasia are preserved). But without the overpowering Hungering Rune Weapon interaction, there is a lot more room for other builds to compete, and we've buffed the spec's baseline damage a great deal to shift the landscape towards all talents being closer together in DPS. As always, we'll continue to examine all of these changes based after people can start to test them on PTR.EDIT: Added Frozen Pulse change which was missed when I copied changes into the post earlier. As with the other changes, this is meant to make Frozen Pulse balanced within its new row, and meant to be accounted for in the overall DPS increase above.I believe a few more updates actually made their way into the next PTR (some potentially still in progress):

--Obliteration now causes Howling Blast to grant Killing Machine, as well as Frost Strike. This should help with feeling like you can use Rime procs without interfering with Obliteration.--The overall damage buff is 21%, not 27%. Just a new estimate of what's correct to roughly account for all the talent changes. Rest assured the goal is to find the accurate amount by which the talent changes would hurt total DPS and correct for that, even before looking into possible further adjustments for class balance.

Finally, the L75 row is generally redesigned. The overall situation seemed to be that Permafrost did a rather low amount of shielding, but was usually taken because the other options had so little use. Some of this might be a little preliminary, but the ideas on PTR are:--Permafrost shields for 75% of autoattack damage (from 30%).--White Walker redesigned to: "Wraith Walk cools down 100% more quickly anytime no enemy is within 10 yards."--New talent Inexorable Assault (replacing Volatile Shielding): "For every 2 seconds spent in combat without melee attacking, you gain a stack of Inexorable Assault. Each stack causes your next autoattack to deal additional Frost damage."(PTR numbers might vary slightly from the above)

Both of the new talents are going in a direction we want to better explore on slow melee specs like Frost: helping to address time off target, without power-creeping general movement capability. Overall, sprints and gap closers are very prevalent on melee specs (likely too much so across the game), and it's been increasingly hard to deliver on slower, heavy-hitter melee archetypes. Most of that discussion is much longer-term, but I wanted to give some context for trying to resist the direction of having every melee spec use a short-cooldown sprint/charge, and try to branch out into more class-appropriate ways of dealing with the problem.We're definitely walking an unusual line with a talent that on its face does damage, but is on a "utility row." The goal would be that you can't use it to gain damage in non-movement situations (and we may have to tweak the timing or other aspects of exactly how it works in order to do that).

And on a fight where you are forced to sometimes be off-target (which is common), Inexorable Assault would add damage, to be sure--but so does essentially every movement talent on any spec. The fact that it has a place in your damage meter breakdown is unusual but is a bit of a red herring. It's still merely recouping some damage that you'd otherwise have lost, no differently from a talent that lets you get back to the boss more quickly.

Breath of Sindragosa Continuously deal (287.5%316% of Attack power) Shadowfrost damage every 1 sec to enemies in a cone in front of you. Deals reduced damage to secondary targets. You will continue breathing until your Runic Power is exhausted or you cancel the effect.

Frozen Pulse While you have fewer than 2 full Rune, your auto attacks radiate intense cold, inflicting (66%40% of Attack power) Frost damage on all nearby enemies.Now requires Level 90, up from 57Tier 6 Talent, in place of Runic Attenuation

Glacial Advance Summon glacial spikes from the ground that advance forward, each dealing (375% of Attack power) Frost damage to enemies near their eruption point.Now requires Level 58, down from 100Tier 3 Talent, in place of Hungering Rune Weapon

NEW Inexorable Assault For every 2 seconds spent in combat without melee attacking, you gain a stack of Inexorable AssaultWhile in combat with no enemy within 8 yards, you gain Inexorable Assault every 1 sec. Each stack causes your next autoattack to deal (100% of Attack power) additional Frost damage.Tier 5 Talent, in place of Volatile Shielding

Murderous Efficiency Consuming the Killing Machine effect has a 65%50% chance to cause you to gain 1 Rune.Now requires Level 57, up from 56Tier 2 Talent, in place of Frozen Pulse

Rain from Above You fly into the air out of harm's way. While floating, you gain access to Fel Lance allowing you to deal damage to enemies below. Now requires Level 10, down from 28Row 6 Col 1 PvP Talent, in place of Detainment

Spirit Bomb Consume all Soul Fragments within 25 yds and then explode, afflicting nearby enemies with Frailty for 20 sec and damaging them for (200%180% of Attack power) Fire per fragment.You heal for 20% of all damage you deal to enemies with Frailty.

Honor Talents (1)

Demonic Trample You enter Metamorphosis, moving at 200% increased speed for 8 sec, knocking down all enemies in your path and dealing (63% of Attack power) Physical damage.During Demonic Trample you are unaffected by snares but cannot cast spells or use your normal attacks.Now requires Level 10, down from 28Row 6 Col 1 PvP Talent, in place of Detainment

Detainment Imprison's PvP duration is increased by 1 sec, and targets become immune to damage and healing while imprisoned. Cooldown increased to 30 sec.Now requires Level 28, up from 10

Celestial Guardian While in Bear Form, you take 20%10% less damage from spells and receive 20% increased healing.

Cyclone Tosses the enemy target into the air, disorienting them but making them invulnerable for up to 6 sec. Only one target can be affected by your Cyclone at a time.

Ironfeather Armor Moonkin form increases your armor by an additional 50%25% and reduces your chance to be critically hit by melee attacks by 20%.

Prickling Thorns When your Entangling Roots is removed, dispelled, or ends, the target will take (100000300% of Spell power) damage.

Blizzard

Hi Cats,

We have a number of changes to Feral Druids coming soon. The general goals of these changes are:

1. Reduce (but not necessarily displace entirely) the dominance of the big three complexifying and powerful talents: Savage Roar, Jagged Wounds, and Bloodtalons. Each of those talents is (on live) winning by a large margin in terms of throughput against other talents on their rows.

2. Balance out the power level of the last 3 talent rows, allowing more talents builds to be viable.

3. Increase the skill floor and reduce how punishing it can be to error when playing the rotation.

4. Compensate for power-level-reductions of talents with baseline damage increase to the spec so that at the highest level, performance isn't really affected, but the bottom of the spec is brought up.

Looking back at the development of Feral Druid in Legion: when Savage Roar was moved from a baseline ability to the talent tree, in order to bring the power level of the ability closer to most talents (+25% damage to everything for a long duration is far stronger than most talents are), rather than reducing its damage bonus, its duration was significantly shortened instead. This contributed greatly to the overconstrained and overly punishing Feral rotation that you see on live today. Additionally, Jagged Wounds was added as a new talent, reducing the amount of free combo points Ferals had available to finishers such as (which was basically pushed out of the rotation entirely). Both talents probably would have been fine on their own, but taken together (because they were the strongest) at the live tuning values led to a more pressured Feral rotation than we felt was right.

The primary gain here is moving Brutal Slash to a sort of multitarget/AOE lvl 90 talent row along with Sabertooth (which can be well-utilized in a sustained low-target situation), giving the lvl 90 row a solid talent for dungeons. For now, we want to go with an arrangement that keeps Jagged Wounds, Savage Roar, and Bloodtalons on separate rows so the current most common live build is still possible.

Other less major changes include quality of life and tuning adjustments to some talents to balance out the rows:

Moment of Clarity now causes Omen of Clarity to trigger twice as often and increases the damage of the affected abilities by 25%. This is to better space out what is essentially a large energy proc and reduce slightly the impact that a single talent has on the resource income and pacing of the rotation.

Overall, with these changes, balance for the last 3 talent rows and consequently overall should be better in general. We expect the current most common build/playstyle of Jagged Wounds + Savage Roar + Bloodtalons to still remain one of the strongest builds, but it should no longer win by a huge margin over other competing talent builds and also should be a little less strenuous to play.

These changes should be available in an upcoming PTR build. As usual, we may make further adjustments – especially tuning – as PTR progresses.

Blizzard

Short update for some changes in the next PTR build:

Thrash will generate 1 combo point baseline - as an energy-spending non-finishing move attack, it feels like it should. The Tier 19 2pc bonus which previously had this effect has been changed to a 15% damage increase to Thrash. With these changes, Thrash is still intended to not be used in the baseline single-target rotation (not counting the effects of sets/legendaries).

Additionally, to help out Feral AOE a bit more, the energy costs of Thrash and Swipe are being reduced by 5. (to 45 Energy and 40 Energy, respectively).

Moment of Clarity will, as an additional feature of the talent, allow Omen of Clarity's clearcasting proc to stack up to 2 times (and is now tooltipped). This should be sufficient with how the clearcasting procs are better spaced out in 7.3.

Omen of Clarity Your auto attacks have a chance to cause a Clearcasting state, making your next Shred, Thrash, or SwipeBrutal SlashBrutal SlashSwipe cost no Energy.

Talents (2)

Bloodtalons Casting Regrowth or Entangling Roots causes your next two melee abilities to deal 25%20% increased damage for their full duration.

Moment of Clarity Omen of Clarity now triggers twice as often100% more often, stacks up to (1u + 1) times and increases the damage of your next Shred, Thrash, or Swipe by 25%.Your maximum Energy is increased by 30.Brutal SlashBrutal SlashSwipe by 20%.Your maximum Energy is increased by 30.

Blizzard

There are a few specializations (including Beast Mastery) that had some buffs removed or reduced in the latest 7.3 release candidate. Those buffs were added to the PTR to help adjust for the additional 15 item levels your Artifact Weapon will gain from the Netherlight Crucible, as some specs currently get more of an overall effectiveness increase from item level than others.

Since the Netherlight Crucible won't be available immediately when 7.3 launches, these buffs have been removed temporarily from the latest release candidate build. They will be re-added via hotfix a couple weeks after release, once the Crucible can be unlocked.

In the future, we hope to find a better solution for the disparity in effectiveness that weapon ilevel has between specs, but that won't be in 7.3.

Barrage Rapidly fires a spray of shots for 3 sec, dealing an average of (80% * 810) Physical damage to all enemies in front of you. Usable while moving.

Honor Talents (1)

Separation Anxiety When your pet is furtherfarther than 25 yards away from you, it gains up to 50% additional movement speed and 25% damage reduction. Effect increased when your pet is furtherfarther away from you.

Talents (1)

Barrage Rapidly fires a spray of shots for 3 sec, dealing an average of (80% * 810) Physical damage to all enemies in front of you. Usable while moving.

Honor Talents (1)

Scatter Shot A short-range shot that deals 35% weapon damage, removes all harmful damage over time effects, and incapacitatingincapacitates the target for 4 sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Turns off your attack when used.

NEW Item - Hunter T21 Survival 2P Bonus Flanking Strike has a 10% chance to increase the critical strike chance of your next Raptor Strike by 100% and the critical strike damage of Raptor Strike by 50% within the next 20 sec.

Blizzard

Few quick fixes:--Frozen Orb should be affected by Shatter--Ice Time should be included in the spec passive (0% anyway).--Ebonbolt damage can proc procs (rarely matters much since most procs are RPPM)--Ebonbolt and Flurry damage no longer log a second cast entryedit: --Freezing Rain last 12 seconds, unmodified by haste. This didn't match its tooltip anyway, so I changed the tooltip, and I don't see any reason it needed to be affected by haste.

Quick comment:It's generally right that Frost's mastery is very narrow (scaling-wise, essentially a % buff to Frostbolt with a few quirks). The narrower a mastery is, the more potential problems with needing to attach very high numbers to it for stat balance, that risk interfering with the rotation priority somehow. It's become more of an issue in Legion, since the large number of added effects on the class (as with every class) means that Frostbolt is a much lower % of damage done as it used to be. I'm not sure there's a short-term fix, but ideally Frostbolt would be a more substantial portion of damage in the future in the first place.

Talents (1)

Glacial Spike Conjures a massive spike of ice, and merges your current Icicles into it. It impales your target, dealing (1170%1755% of Spell power) damage plus the damage stored in your Icicles, and freezes the target in place for 4 sec. Damage may interrupt the freeze effect.Requires 5 Icicles to cast.Passive:Ice Lance no longer launches Icicles.

Spinning Crane KickMistweaver:Spin while kicking in the air, dealing 100%122% of Attack power)] damage over 1.50 sec to enemies within 8 yds.Windwalker:Spin while kicking in the air, dealing 100%122% of Attack power)] damage over 1.50 sec to enemies within 8 yds.Spinning Crane Kick's damage is increased by 40% for each unique target you've struck in the last 15 sec with Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, Rising Sun Kick, or Rushing Jade Wind.Spinning Crane Kick's damage is increased by 40% for each unique target you've struck in the last 15 sec with Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, or Rising Sun Kick.

Fortifying Brew Turns your skin to stone, increasing your current and maximum health by 20%, and reducing damage taken by 20%.Now a Mistweaver spell

Honor Talents (1)

Way of the Crane Increases your Physical damage by 50%, you remove and become immune to all stun, snare and root effects and you heal up to 3 nearest allies for 200%175% of all damage done. Lasts 15 sec.Cost changed from 8.0% of base mana to 10.0% of base mana

Specialization (2)

Cyclone Strikes Spin while kicking in the air, dealing 100%122% of Attack power)] damage over 1.50 sec to enemies within 8 yds. WindwalkerSpinning Crane Kick's damage is increased by 40% for each unique target you've struck in the last 15 sec with Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, Rising Sun Kick, or Rushing Jade WindSpinning Crane Kick's damage is increased by 40% for each unique target you've struck in the last 15 sec with Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, or Rising Sun Kick

Spinning Crane KickMistweaver:Spin while kicking in the air, dealing 100%122% of Attack power)] damage over 1.50 sec to enemies within 8 yds.Windwalker:Spin while kicking in the air, dealing 100%122% of Attack power)] damage over 1.50 sec to enemies within 8 yds.Spinning Crane Kick's damage is increased by 40% for each unique target you've struck in the last 15 sec with Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, Rising Sun Kick, or Rushing Jade Wind.Spinning Crane Kick's damage is increased by 40% for each unique target you've struck in the last 15 sec with Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, or Rising Sun Kick.

Fists of Fury Pummels all targets in front of you, dealing 420%573.4% of Attack power)] damage over 4 sec. Can be channeled while moving.Effect #5 School Damage Value: 0 (AP mod: 4.24.7)

Chi BurstWindwalker, Mistweaver:Hurls a torrent of Chi energy up to 40 yds forward, dealing (412.5%503.25% of Attack power) Nature damage to all enemies, and (412.5% of Attack power) healing to the Monk and all allies in its path.Brewmaster:Hurls a torrent of Chi energy up to 40 yds forward, dealing (412.5%503.25% of Attack power) Nature damage to all enemies, and (412.5% of Attack power) healing to the Monk and all allies in its path.Casting Chi Burst does not prevent avoiding attacks.

Soothing Mist Heals the target for (3600% of Spell power) over 20 sec.While channeling, Effuse and Enveloping Mist are instant cast, and will heal the soothed target without breaking the Soothing Mist channel.Cost changed from 0.0% of base mana, plus 0.2% per second to 0.0% of base mana, plus 0.3% per secondFists of Fury Pummels all targets in front of you, dealing 420%470% of Attack power)] damage over 4 sec. Can be channeled while moving.

Tiger PalmMistweaver:Attack with the palm of your hand, dealing (105%128.1% of Attack power) damage.Brewmaster:Attack with the palm of your hand, dealing (105%128.1% of Attack power) damage.Reduces the remaining cooldown on your Brews by 1 sec.Windwalker:Attack with the palm of your hand, dealing (105%128.1% of Attack power) damage.Tiger Palm has an 8% chance to make your next Blackout Kick cost no Chi.Generates 0 Chi.

Effect #1 School Damage Value: 1 (AP mod: 1.051.281)

Zen Pilgrimage Your spirit travels to the Peak of Serenity in Pandariayour home temple, leaving your body behind. Use Zen Pilgrimage again to return back to near your departure point.

Talents (1)

Chi BurstWindwalker, Mistweaver:Hurls a torrent of Chi energy up to 40 yds forward, dealing (412.5%503.25% of Attack power) Nature damage to all enemies, and (412.5% of Attack power) healing to the Monk and all allies in its path.Brewmaster:Hurls a torrent of Chi energy up to 40 yds forward, dealing (412.5%503.25% of Attack power) Nature damage to all enemies, and (412.5% of Attack power) healing to the Monk and all allies in its path.Casting Chi Burst does not prevent avoiding attacks.

NEW Item - Monk T21 Mistweaver 2P Bonus When Gust of Mists heals a target, they have a 101% chance to gain Tranquil Mist which heals them for (320% of Spell power) health over 8 sec.

NEW Item - Monk T21 Mistweaver 4P Bonus When you cast Renewing Mist, you have a 50% chance to send a bolt of healing Chi at all targets affected by Tranquil Mist, healing them for (50% of Spell power).

Hammer of the Righteous Hammers the current target for 112% Physical damage. Protection (Level 14)Hammer of the Righteous also causes a wave of light that hits all other targets within 8 yds for 67% Holy damageWhile you are standing in your Consecration, Hammer of the Righteous also causes a wave of light that hits all other targets within 8 yds for 67% Holy damage

Eye for an Eye Reduces Physical damage you take by 35%, and instantly counterattacks any enemy that strikes you in melee combat for 170%215% Physical damage. Lasts 10 sec.

Justicar's Vengeance A weapon strike that deals (800%1000% of Attack power) Holy damage and restores health equal to the damage done.Deals 100% additional damage and healing when used against a stunned target.

Divine Punisher Using JudgmentCasting two consecutive Judgments on the same enemy you judged last generateswill generate 3 Holy Power.

Artifact Traits (2)

Ashes to Ashes Wake of Ashes also generates 5 Holy Power and causes all enemies hit to burn for (660%840% of Attack power) Radiant damage over 6 sec.

Wake of Ashes Lash out with the Ashbringer, dealing (650%830% of Attack power)% Radiant damage to all enemies within 12 yd in front of you, and reducing movement speed by 50% for 6 sec.Demon and Undead enemies are stunned for 6 sec if struck by the Wake of Ashes.Effect #1 School Damage Value: 1 (AP mod: 6.58.3)

Ray of Hope For the next 6 sec, all damage and healing dealt to the target is delayed until Ray of Hope ends. All healing that is delayed by Ray of Hope is increased by 50%.Cooldown changed from 45 sec cooldown to 1 min cooldown

Blizzard

There are a few specializations (including Assassination and Outlaw) that had some buffs removed or reduced in the latest 7.3 release candidate. Those buffs were added to the PTR to help adjust for the additional 15 item levels your Artifact Weapon will gain from the Netherlight Crucible, as some specs currently get more of an overall effectiveness increase from item level than others.

Since the Netherlight Crucible won't be available immediately when 7.3 launches, these buffs have been removed temporarily from the latest release candidate build. They will be re-added via hotfix a couple weeks after release, once the Crucible can be unlocked.

In the future, we hope to find a better solution for the disparity in effectiveness that weapon ilevel has between specs, but that won't be in 7.3.

Killing Spree Teleport to an enemy within 10 yards, attacking 7 times over 3 sec with both weapons for a total of (260% * 7 + 260%338% * 7 + 338% * 7) Physical damage.While Blade Flurry is active, each Killing Spree attack will teleport to and damage a different nearby enemy target.

Artifact Traits (1)

Blunderbuss When Saber Slash strikes an additional time, there is a 33% chance that your next Pistol Shot will be replaced with Blunderbuss. BlunderbussDraws a concealed blunderbuss and fires a quick shot at the target, dealing 121%157.3% of Attack power) * 4] damage and reducing movement speed by 50% for 6 sec.Awards 1 combo point.

Blizzard

Catching up a bit on the newest changes people are starting to see on PTR, in particular:

"Static Overload: After using Stormkeeper, your next Chain Lightning causes Elemental Overload to trigger on every target."

Static Overload has been a sticking point throughout Legion (both in our eyes and based on feedback). Too much of the power of Chain Lightning was contained in an uncontrollable and very spiky proc. This is exacerbated by the fact that Chain Lightning is buffed tremendously in short windows by some effects--primarily, Stormkeeper and Lightning Rod.

A fully-controllable redesign of Static Overload should significantly mitigate the randomness in hoping it comes up during the moments it would be most valuable. The version we're trying out on PTR always gives a Static Overload at a high-value moment. We expect that it is overall a net increase to the power of the effect.

Summing up where we are with Elemental after various small changes in this patch:--Single-target damage is buffed, through a flat buff to all spells other than Chain Lightning, and a larger buff to Earth Shock. We'll continue to monitor overall balance as always.--Mastery will continue being valuable in higher values, which eases gearing constraints, and also prevents overall scaling from tailing off as it's capped out.--Burst AoE potential available through Stormkeeper is both higher and more reliable. Increasing Elemental's on-demand AoE burst wasn't a big priority, but it's fine for it to happen in the process of switching to an on-demand design for Static Overload.--Sustained AoE damage is similar or higher due to a large buff to Earthquake, and the likelihood of Static Overload's total contribution being higher in situations where Stormkeeper is being used.

Past posts:

Blizzard

Few updates--potentially not on the upcoming PTR:

1) Not going forward with the Maelstrom generation change. It's generally way too much disruption and potentially new problems introduced for something that's meant to be a somewhat minor set of changes in this patch. Given all the feedback that was concerned about the slowdown it would cause on 2-3 targets, it's okay to leave Chain Lightning generating resource so quickly on 5 targets--it's a less bad problem overall, and also what people are already used to on live.

Reverting the Maelstrom change is also effectively a further buff to Earthquake damage. This should be a clear net buff to steady AoE where Earthquake can be used well (which is not every AoE situation). It may not completely cause Earthquake to surpass Chain Lightning, but it is a big step in that direction. We'll likely tweak numbers further to balance all these concerns/goals. Namely:--Helping out Earthquake substantially--Not causing a large buff to AoE damage in steady Earthquake-friendly situations--Not causing a large nerf to Chain Lightning-only burst (which is a strength that Elemental is used to in Legion)

2) Slightly buffing Elemental Blast's own damage to mostly cancel out the reduction to the stat buff, as discussed earlier.

3) Buffing Frost Shock in parallel with Earth Shock. We still need to look into Frost Shock interactions with the 7.3 set bonus if we go forward with that bonus.

Mastery: Elemental Overload Your Lightning Bolt, Elemental Blast, Icefury, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst casts have a 18%15% chance to trigger a second cast on the same target for 75%85% of normal damage and 75% of normal Maelstrom generation.

Frost Shock Chills the target with frost, causing (64.4%90% of Spell power) Frost damage and reducing the target's movement speed by 50% for 5 sec. Maelstrom increases damage and duration up to 100%.

Shamanism Your Heroism / Bloodlust spell now has a 60 sec. cooldown, but increases Haste by 20%, and only affects you and your friendly target when cast for 10 sec.In addition, Heroism / Bloodlust is no longer affected by Exhaustion / Sated.

Earth Shield Protects the target with an earthen shield, reducing all damage the target receives by 15% and causes the target to be healed for (450% of Spell power) when they take an attack equal to 4% of their total health. 4 Charges.Earth Shield can only be placed on one target at a time.Cooldown changed from 5 sec cooldown to 6 sec cooldown

Spells (1)

Earthquake Causes the earth within 8 yards of the target location to tremble and break, dealing (Spell power * 0.775.92 * 6) Physical damage over 6 sec and sometimes knocking down enemies.

Cremation Your Incinerate automatically applies Immolate, and ShadowburnShadowburnConflagrate deals an additional 5% of the target's maximum health in Fire damage if the target is affected by your Immolate.

NEW Item - Warlock T21 Demonology 4P Bonus When you cast Demonic Empowerment, your Dreadstalkers will immediately use Dreadbite again at 50% increased damage. This can only occur once per cast of Call Dreadstalkers.

Intercept Run at high speed toward an ally or enemy.When targeting an enemy, Intercept deals (70% of Attack power) Physical damage, roots the target for 1 sec and then reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 6 sec, but has a minimum range of 8 yds.When targeting an ally, Intercept will intercept the next melee or ranged attack against the ally within 10 sec while the target remains within 10 yards.Generates 15 Rage.Range changed from 25 yd range to 8 - 25 yd range

Comments

Comment by perculia

on 2017-07-30T14:38:55-05:00

People always really like these articles and we hope this one is no exception! As always when this post goes live, there are probably a few spells that slip through the cracks, so we'll be checking in later today to make any edits. Thanks for your feedback!

Comment by SilverDragon234

on 2017-07-30T15:00:48-05:00

I'll get used to it. I ain't easily bothered by nerfs. IMO, there's no such thing as a nerf in WoW.

Comment by savagetiger13

on 2017-07-30T15:27:11-05:00

Ok....so the changes for BM and MM hunters are a trip to a an English teacher so we can enjoy proper grammar. I know I'll sleep better tonight.

Comment by NinjaLooterLoveU

on 2017-07-30T16:06:13-05:00

IT Server Gnome telling you, how you, are gonna play your class. Dude has 100 achievements and likes to collect National Geographic articles on rare cats.

Comment by Jimbrooks

on 2017-07-30T18:20:06-05:00

That little aoe buff for prot pallies is not really needed, but I am not going to question it! Thanks!

Comment by Ogdoad

on 2017-07-30T20:52:42-05:00

"Rain from Above You fly into the air out of harm's way. While floating, you gain access to Fel Lance allowing you to deal damage to enemies below. Now requires Level 10, down from 28Row 6 Col 1 PvP Talent, in place of Detainment"

How is it in place of detainment?

Comment by deathslover

on 2017-07-30T22:23:31-05:00

*laughs in BM hunter and enhance shaman*

Comment by Tuckletuts

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/13#aggregate=amount I don't think a 5% nerf to two of their spells (not their main damage source UA either) is going to make much difference for Affliction. They will still be incredibly strong on both ST and AoE fights, and this "nerf" will probably equate to about a 1-2% dps loss at most which will still keep them in the top 5 specs.

Comment by mickeyworld92

Comment by Shelassa

Ok....so the changes for BM and MM hunters are a trip to a an English teacher so we can enjoy proper grammar. I know I'll sleep better tonight.

This. The proper grammar shall make us OP.

Comment by Chickenbomb

on 2017-07-31T02:28:46-05:00

OMG They nerfed MY Class and buffed the OTHER classes? WTF!

Comment by Padrin

on 2017-07-31T04:27:51-05:00

The tooltip for Sub Rogue's Weaponmaster is a bug, right? No way that's staying at 100%.

Comment by Forbbidenx

on 2017-07-31T06:11:25-05:00

Why was the removal of fortifying brew from mistweaver monks not listed?

Comment by SuoSon

on 2017-07-31T07:05:36-05:00

The change from 6% to 100% weaponmaster proc chance was a mistake, was set back to 6%.

And the General and Setpiece Dropdown is not within the Shaman category.

Comment by jaeven7778

on 2017-07-31T07:48:53-05:00

Ok....so the changes for BM and MM hunters are a trip to a an English teacher so we can enjoy proper grammar. I know I'll sleep better tonight.

This. The proper grammar shall make us OP.

I love that this qualifies as a class change. Grammar nazis rejoice. Now can we fix the stupid ice block glitch that happens in Azuna.

Comment by Zawodowiec1532

on 2017-07-31T09:15:56-05:00

There is syntax error at Shaman section (try use arrows to hide it). :PProbably duplicated bbcodes or missplaced closing one?

Comment by irmos

on 2017-07-31T10:54:19-05:00

Cry more Affl because u cant solo bg's and arenas as it was the old times..... and after a 5% nerf u are still top dmgbut I don't see u to cry about Outlaw after they nerfed 240% with leg bracers..... so qq